The Escapist
by DarkStarlet
Summary: Danielle Yates finds herself in a rather odd situation, and it won't stop raining.
1. Chapter 1 The Dropped Wallet

(Disclaimer: I do not own Dr Who, if I did, I would alway be the assistant and Jack would feature in it waaaay more. Only Danielle Yates and the plot are mine along with the creatures created for the storyline.)

Chapter 1 – The Dropped Wallet

Danielle Yates hurried through the rain, her massive golf umbrella giving warning to others walking by that they should get out of her way. She was rather on the short side, at least that was what she'd been told, and the umbrella on her shoulder on came up to most people's necks.

She pulled her coat about her all the tighter, wishing she'd done it up like her mother had told her to. Not that the coat would protect her much, it was a thin faux leather jacket, with sleeves that only came past her elbows and no further.

She stopped in the shelter of an overhang in front of a shop to check her phone. 10. 17 Am. She rushed on towards the library, passing by the bus station, and giggling at the people getting soaked. The impressive building loomed up in front of her, massive Romanesque pillars holding up the solid stone roof. The two open green doors were tiny in comparison, but just enough for the little lady to fling herself into.

Danielle, or Dani as she preferred to be called, was a tom-boy and enjoyed paintball, playing rugby with the boys and spending all night playing Xbox shooter games. However today was different, she was studying instead, learning about fruit carving…

Her mother's birthday was coming up and had decided to take up another ridiculous hobby. So in order to not look bad in front of her older brother who had bought an expensive round-the-world cruise for the day, she would fuel the chaos.

In the library, Dani looked up the history of fruit carving, the tools used, and how to use them. Then she ordered everything online and left the building.

It was still raining…

It wasn't as bad now though, and Dani walked through the drizzle, sidestepping the puddles or leaping over them daintily.

She came round the corner of the bus station and crashed into someone hidden deep inside their hood.

"I'm sorry!" Dani called out. But they were already gone.

Looking down, Dani spotted something small and dark on the ground, a wallet.

She picked it up and dashed after the person who'd dropped it. She saw them entering the building site next to the library, and followed them in.

"Hello? You dropped your wallet! Hello!"

Calling out for a few minutes, Dani started to feel stupid. She'd blindly followed a complete stranger into a building site in the rain. And they weren't even here anymore. They'd probably been using the site as a shortcut to get to the shopping centre on the other side.

Turning she looked at the wallet once more, perhaps they'd have some kind of ID so the police could contact them when she handed it in. Opening it, Dani was shocked to find nothing in the wallet, nothing but a blank bit of paper that is…

Looking around, Dani felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, like she was being watched, and she looked around the dark of the clutter about her.

Finding nothing she chided herself and looked back at the wallet, perhaps there would be a name in the lining?

The paper had writing on it, it said, '_Duck!_'

Dani crouched down, having heard a sound behind her. A cement mixer flew over her head, it could have killed her!

She looked back and saw nothing, and didn't really want to stick around to find out, she went to stand up, and realised that the paper had changed again…

'_Don't move._' It said.

Dani frowned… first it was blank, then it told her to duck and now she froze at its command.

Something slithered behind her and she glared at the paper, shoving questions at it in her head, not wanting to speak in case of alerting the… something… behind her.

The words shifted and said, '_Trust me. When I tell you to run, you'd better do it._'

She agreed in her head and stared at the paper still. The noise behind her stopped, and she was tempted to turn and look, but managed to resist.

Numbers appeared on the paper, counting down…

3…

2…

1…

'_RUN!'_

Dani shot off out of the dim yard and into the street, turning left to go down the workmen's alley to the quieter streets at the back. She heard nothing behind her, no screaming from other passers-by seeing something scary, so she slowed and hid in the doorway to some falling-apart flats.

She was breathing hard, but stopped huffing quickly, so as not to attract attention to herself.

She spoke aloud to the paper now.

"What on Earth are you?" came her exasperated voice.

'_Psychic Paper. You need to take a left here.'_

"What?"

'_Take a left. You want to find out what's going on, don't you?'_

She turned left and walked down the nearly empty road, following it to the end and turning right at the paper's direction.

The paper lead Dani to the river, where she followed it into the local shipyard and up to a large metal crate.

"What's in there then?"

'_Open it and find out.'_

She opened the door with a bit of a struggle, and squeezed inside, dragging her bag with her. She wondered for a moment if her friends were waiting for her… she'd text them in a bit, once she'd found out what was going on.

Turning and peering into the crate, it was too dark to see and Dani went to open the door, and saw it slam shut behind her.

"Hey! Letmeout!" She screamed.

There was a noise behind her… a sort of distant echoing dong, it almost sounded like it came from underwater.

Turning to face the darkness again, she saw it wasn't all that dark after all; in fact it was just bright enough because of a weak light coming from the top of a large box.

Dani approached cautiously, wondering what she should make of this new situation.

Reaching out to the box, it made the same 'dong' again. She found a handle on the front, and pushed against it, opening the door.

It creaked with an age not betrayed by its deep blue paint, and revealed a youth inside far beyond comprehension.

Bigger… on the inside…

Dani stepped inside and looked in awe at the place before her. How could this even be possible?

"Is this what you wanted me to find?" she asked the paper.

She looked down for the answer and got none, it had returned to being blank.

She shut the door and walked up the steps to the console, shimmering lights and buttons winking at her. In the large tube in the centre of the console, a strangely shaped object started to move, up and down, in time to the rhythm of the screeching noise coming from all round.

The floor lurched to one side and then the other, throwing Dani to the floor. She clung to the base of a… car seat? The lurching and screeching came to a halt as suddenly as it had begun, and the lights came back on to a normal level.

Scared, Dani stood and fled the room, back out the door she'd come through, and found herself in a totally different location…


	2. Chapter 2 That Niggling Feeling

Chapter 2 – That Niggling Feeling

Tall deep purple fronds, of something like a palm tree, blocked most of Dani's view. The ground was covered in a pale blue substance that felt like snow. It was cold and draped over everything. Looking at the Paper for guidance, it simply told her to explore, not much use after all.

Peering through the fronds, past the almost burgundy trunks, something silver jutted up into the chilly air. It seemed to be a building of some kind, with large towers and reflective windows.

She approached cautiously, not wanting to disturb the silence.

'_Get inside.'_

She followed what looked like a road into a large empty courtyard, only to see guards at the reflective doors.

'_Show the paper to the guards, I'll get you inside.'_

So, walking with confidence up to the large entrance, Dani confronted the two guards.

They were very human-like, but had deep blue skin, and were all a little on the large size, with no hair on their heads.

Holding up the wallet, the two guards bowed low and opened the doors to allow Dani to pass.

Looking at the paper in amusement as she entered the building, Dani noticed that it said she was an ambassador from the Tethnarack Quadrant.

Raising her eyebrows, she smiled and looked around the expansive room, a huge glass staircase leading up ahead of her. It was like a palace… all silver and white, like it belonged to the Ice Queen in Narnia…

Ignoring the stairs for now, she headed for a tiny door near the back of the room.

"Dungeon… Interesting…"

Dani opened the door and shut it behind her as she descended the steps behind it. The way wasn't lit by natural light, but nor were there any torches or bulbs, it just seemed to ooze out of the walls. Reaching the bottom, Dani glanced about.

Ambassador or not, she highly doubted people would want her down here.

'_Second last on the right.'_ Said the paper.

She followed the instruction and reached the room in question, and peered through the tiny window by standing on her tippy-toes.

Inside there was a man. He looked human, with his floppy dark hair and what looked like a tweed suit and bow-tie. She knocked on the door and caught his attention. He grinned and waved another bit of paper at her, a second to the one in the wallet.

She couldn't hear him through the door, so he sent her a message through the paper again.

'_Hello brilliant you! Could you get me out of here now?'_

She nodded and looked around for some keys; they resembled twigs, pure white twigs with all sorts of strange twisty bits. She tried each of them, and just like in the movies, it had to be the last one.

The door opened with a slight hiss, and the man tumbled out, landing on top of her.

"Are you alright?" Dani asked, worry betraying the voice she was trying to keep steady.

"Hello! I'm the Doctor! Nice to meet you!"

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, more than one pair, with voices carrying ahead of them.

"… not due for another week yet. We have to find her; she must be trying to assist that dastardly Doctor."

Dani and the Doctor scramble up and dashed around to hide. The Doctor got back in his cell, but left the door open, but not visibly so.

Dani used a small table to help her get above the staircase door, laying uncomfortably on the smooth… stone? Or was it metal? She didn't have time to speculate as four people entered the corridor them.

They all checked to see if the Doctor was still in his cell, and pleased, they left again, but stationed one guard to keep an eye on things.

Silently as she could, Dani slid out of her hiding place and moved up behind the guard. He found that the Doctor's cell was open and so when he opened it to question the Doctor, she pushed him inside. The Doctor leapt over him and shut the door securely behind him.

The guard hammered on the door, but the pair outside couldn't hear a thing. They smiled at each other for a moment before bursting into a fit of giggles, much to the distress of the big blue man in the cell.

"I didn't get to introduce myself. I'm Dani. And you're the Doctor… right?"

"Ah… yes, now how did you come across my wallet? I was lucky I had an extra bit of it, or I really would have been in a bit of a pickle!"

"Someone dropped it in the street, I followed them to give it back, and well… It led me here!"

"Actually that was me. I used the sub-tronic waves remaining in this system from my last journey and followed it back with the link in the two bits of Psychic paper!"

Dani just nodded, not really understanding what he was talking about, but after seeing what she had, she decided to just go with it.

"So is that blue box yours?"

"The TARDIS? Yes, of course, I trust she brought you here neatly?"

"Um… yes?"

"Good! Now let's get out of here…"

The Doctor headed for the stairs and Dani followed reluctantly.

Who was this strange man she'd rescued? He seemed very wise, and yet at the same time, very childish.

Reaching the door at the top of the stairs, Dani and the Doctor paused, looking for guards. Dani started to move towards the door, but the Doctor stopped her.

"I've got to get my screwdriver back."

"A screwdriver? Can't you just buy a new one back on Earth?"

"Not one like this. It's a Sonic Screwdriver!" He said proudly.

Sighing, and wondering if she'd picked up a madman, Dani followed him once more, this time up the glass staircase and through the double doors at the top.

It led into a vast open space, with high, thin windows lining the walls between the silver pillars that looked too fragile to hold up the extensively decorated ceiling. At the far end, a large chair stood, empty, but covered in deep purple robes, recently abandoned.

Next to this chair was a small glass pedestal, and upon it, the Sonic Screwdriver.

The pair walked swiftly towards it, but before the Doctor could grab his prize, Dani halted him.

"Nothing's that easy Doctor. Let me try."

Not waiting for an answer, Dani stepped up to the pedestal and examined it carefully.

She noticed a darker section of glass underneath the Sonic, and smiled.

"I think it's a pressure pad, or something of the like. Do you have something that weighs the same as it?"

The Doctor rummaged in his pockets and came out with a couple of packets of gum, an elastic band and a pencil.

Dani took them and stuck the gum to the pencil with the band, then carefully moved it over to the Sonic, and made the switch.

Holding very still, Dani waited for a few seconds before standing and giving the strange contraption back to the Doctor.

"I am so glad I love adventure movies…"

"Right! Now we can get out of here!" Grinned the Doctor.

"I think not!"

This new voice was loud and booming, full of authority.

It belonged to a large blue man, dressed in rich purple robes, with a silver crown upon his head.

Guards rushed out from hidden doors in the walls and formed a loose semi-circle around the intruding pair.

"Doctor…" Dani whispered, "Do they know what an umbrella is?"

"I don't think so… What have you got in mind?"

Dani stepped forward, brandishing her umbrella at the king.

"You will let us go, or I'll shoot."

"With what weapon?" The king asked nervously.

"This is an… Atomic Disintegrator! It can reduce you to atoms in a second. Stand aside, or face the consequences!"

The strange blue people moved out of the way, and, keeping her umbrella trained on the king, Dani and the Doctor left the throne room quickly, and were halfway down the stairs when one of the guards shouted;

"It's a fake! The scans show no weapon! After them!"

The Doctor grabbed Dani's hand and ran for the door, raising the Sonic Screwdriver, and opening the doors as he went.

The pair made it to the courtyard and leapt over the raising drawbridge, landing on the other side and taking off running again.

It was Dani's turn to lead the way, back to the blue box known as the TARDIS, back through the purple forest.

They pushed the heavy fronds out of the way, making them whoosh back into place with a whomping noise against the trunks.

The box was waiting for them, the light glowing faintly and it made another 'dong' noise, as though impatient for their return.

The Doctor pushed Dani through the doorway, slamming the door shut on the laser fire raining down upon them. The ship shook and groaned in protest.

Buttons were pressed, switches flipped and lights made to flash. The creaking returned and the TARDIS jolted around as it dashed through space and time. It came to a halt after a few seconds, everything at an angle. The Doctor was clinging to the console, but Dani slid across the floor to the doors. She hit them and they opened, she held tightly to the handle, hoping it would hold her weight.

"Doctor!" She screamed in fear. Although she wasn't being sucked into the vacuum of space, she could see it, and the huge ship that had them in a kind of tractor beam. It was slowly pulling the TARDIS back to it, and the TARDIS was fighting back. However the jolting was loosening Dani's grip, she screamed for the Doctor again, and felt something hit her arm. Looking she saw a rope, which she grabbed onto tightly, and found herself pulled inside, the doors shutting themselves behind her.

"You alright Dani? Of course you are! But are we? Come along Dani, let's get out of here!"

He flipped another few switches and the TARDIS screeched in protest before coming free and spinning off into the Time-Vortex.

They landed with an audible thud and Dani opened the door, to the pouring rain of the high street in her home town.

The Doctor appeared beside her, pulling a dark hoodie over his head and putting his wallet in his pocket.

"Time to give you the wallet then!" And off he dashed into the rain.

Realising what was going on, Dani took off after him. There was something she'd forgotten to tell the Doctor, there was a creature in the building site.


	3. Chapter 3 Wing Chung

Chapter 3 – Wing Chung

The rain slapped her in the face, forcing her to slow down and look where she was going. She looked across the car park at herself running into the building site, and chased after… herself…

Dani had to wait for herself to leave, and then she could find the Doctor, or things would change and he'd never be rescued.

Dani watched her past self run out of the site and threw herself into the construction immediately afterwards.

A rushed shadowy shape narrowly missed her and vanished back into the shadows of the mass of concrete blocks and pipes.

Hiding behind a small digger, Dani peered round the tracks, looking for the creature. She saw nothing but shadows, noise blotted out but the rising of the rain. Thunder rolled in the distance.

She saw movement, a high-vis vest on a construction manager who'd come by to check on things.

He wandered past her without event and stood looking at the cement mixer lying on its side in the middle of the open.

He went to pick it up when a darkness shifted overhead.

Dani stood and shouted at the man.

"Run! Get out of here or you'll die!" She started towards the danger, the man in the high-vis vest turned and stood where he was.

"What're you doing in here? Get out; it's dangerous for the likes of you!"

Teeth, rows and rows of it showed out of nothing, and Dani screamed while pointing, her true fear very evident.

The man looked up and screamed too, he tried to run, but wasn't fast enough. He vanished amongst nothingness and his cries were silenced.

The creature, seemingly made out of black smoke, turned on Dani then. She ran.

Leaping over blocks and pipes, and heading for the ladder next to some tall scaffolding.

She got up the ladder the fastest she'd ever moved, and kept on climbing.

Hissing signalled the creatures approach behind her, urging her to move faster, get higher.

The Doctor was nowhere to be seen, and despair filled up the corners of Dani's heart.

Reaching the top of the unfinished hotel, Dani ran across the open expanse of concrete that would one day make up the roof. Slithering followed her.

She reached the edge and looked down. No escape…

She turned back to face the creature, and couldn't see it anywhere, so she panicked a bit. She scanned all around her, and seeing nothing, had the chance to wonder where the Doctor was.

Hot breath blew across her neck and she froze, when had it got behind her?

She went on the defensive and ducked low, swinging her leg up to knock the creature aside.

Despite the seemingly gaseous nature of the alien, it was actually solid, and so her kick pushed it away from her.

Dani spun and went to work on the monster with huge teeth.

She'd done a little martial arts, another of her mother's forgotten hobbies, and had kept up the classes long after her mum had moved onto, 'bigger and better things.'

Dani went into her Wing Chung stance, and readied her defence.

The creature struck out, going for her legs, and she knocked it aside once more.

It seemed to grow cautious, thinking through its next attack, when Dani took her turn to strike!

She launched punch after punch, trying to force the creature back. It went to the edge of the roof… and fell, a horrid screech piercing the air, followed by a loud thud as whatever it was hit the ground.

"Hello Dani!"

Turning, her eyes furious, she rounded on the Doctor.

"Where the hell have you been? "

"Enjoying the view…?"

Dani sighed and realised she would never get a straight answer out of him. So she smiled at him and they clambered down the side of the building together.

Wisps of the creature fluttered away out of view, disintegrating into the smoke it had appeared to be.

"What was that thing Doctor? It ate someone…"

"Related to the Vashta Nerada, what you humans refer to as, 'The Monster under the Bed.' It's a Tavar Nian, like the next step up in the pyramid of shadowy creatures. I've never seen one so big before though…"

"What do you mean by 'you humans', are you saying you're an alien Doctor?"

The Doctor's silence answered her question.

They walked back to the TARDIS in the rain, not speaking still.

The Doctor opened the door and stepped inside, not looking back.

Dani smiled a sad smile and turned to walk away.

"Hey Dani! Where do you think you're going? I thought you were coming along with me?"

She halted and turned back to face him, shock apparent on her face.

"It's a time machine… you can choose where to go first if you want…?"

Dani ran to the Doctor and hugged him tight, looking around the control room in awe once more.

The Doctor shut the door and called out loud, "Where to Dani?" as the light atop the roof eased on and off and the screeching noise grew fainter and fainter along with the image of the little blue box.

**(AN: The end. lol, I think that's the end of this tale, but not the end of Dani and the Doctor...)**


End file.
